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Ethan chuckled. I won t. Get some sleep. I ll join you later. Then he left the bed, dressed, and made some coffee to fill his thermos.

He heard Noah s car drive up and quickly went to the door to wave at Noah to let him know he was about ready.

He didn t want Noah to ring the doorbell or knock on the door and wake Charlene if she had managed to fall back asleep.

He grabbed his backpack, his thermos, and his gun, then headed out to Noah s car.

Noah was also armed with a thermos of coffee. Morning.

Morning. Surveillance is one of the jobs I dislike the most. Ethan shut the car door and buckled in.

Yeah, me too. Lots of sitting and waiting and not much in the line of results. But sometimes we hit the jackpot.

I agree.

Aren t you going to miss this kind of work once you re done with this mission? Noah asked as he drove them to Shelby Bay.

I had thought I might. Solving crimes. Bringing in the bad guys.

Testifying against them. Now that I have Charlene in my life, no.

I m so glad to be here. That was the truth and Noah might not want to hear it, but Ethan had to be honest about it, though he didn t want to rub it in that he was with Charlene and Noah wasn t.

Now that I m in the new job, I ll probably work there for about a decade.

Yeah, as long as we live, it helps to move to a new job on occasion so no one notices that we aren t aging like regular humans, Ethan said.

True. Noah finally reached Shelby Bay and drove by Oakley s house. He found a good place to park so they could watch the house surreptitiously.

Then they sat in silence and immediately saw a car drive by. At this time of morning, it was quiet, except for the lone car. It drove to Oakley s house and Ethan and Noah perked up.

It s not the car we saw before, Ethan said.

Buying drugs or delivering them maybe. Watch for a license plate number.

Got it. Red Chevrolet Camaro. Ethan called it in to Tori because he didn t want to alert anyone in the department that he and Noah were working on the case.

Oh man, it s two thirty in the morning. I was sound asleep, Tori said.

Yeah, I know, but you love it. Ethan gave Tori the make and model and license plate number on the vehicle.

Thanks, I appreciate it. He knew she loved helping him.

She was a good trooper. Hey, hold on. Here s another.

A blue Kia Rio drove up. The Camaro had already driven off.

He gave her the number to the other one.

I take it you re doing surveillance, Tori said.

Yeah, with Noah. We re at Oakley s house.

Okay, well, I m looking into this. Just call me if you have any other license plate numbers.

Will do. Then they ended their call.

You have a good working relationship with Tori, Noah said.

Yeah, we need Tori and Adam, and Sierra too, as part of our law enforcement team. Of course Grainger doesn t know I m using them as a resource because of the mole we think is in the organization.

That s really helpful. I ve never worked with wolves before on the job.

If you like socializing with other wolves at all, you ll love going to the pack activities at the ranch. You ll meet other single she-wolves too.

They watched as more cars stopped by the house. They would go inside for a few minutes and leave again. Tori sounded really tired the last time Ethan had to call her, but she was getting the information back to him about each of the car owners.

Oh no, Tori said. That last car? It belongs to Renault.

No way, Ethan said.

Noah frowned at Ethan. He couldn t be the mole. Maybe he s investigating the situation on his own.

I can t believe it either. But hell, he s known about all the missions I ve been on.

He was with you on the mission when you raided Charlene s house. You caught two of the guys. If Renault had been a mole, he would have made sure that both Kroner and Benny weren t caught, Noah said.

I know. That s puzzling. Then again, Benny was new to the gang and Kroner still was released.

Ethan couldn t believe Renault would be down here on his own, trying to catch these guys.

Grainger wouldn t have sent him without telling Ethan.

Ethan planned to just watch the perp s house and then share the information with his boss.

He sure wouldn t be knocking at a dangerous perp s door on his own without a whole backup team.

Why did Renault move from Florida to Oregon?

He said he wanted a change of pace. Like me, he was from Florida.

His family had broken up when he was a kid and he d been on his own since he was sixteen.

So he worked really hard to finally make his way up the ranks and become a DEA special agent.

I just can t imagine him working with them.

Noah sounded shook up that his friend could be involved with these guys.

We ll have to approach this situation with caution. He may not be in league with them. Even so, Ethan would be wary of Renault until they knew for sure what was going on with him.

I agree. I would hate to lose a good friendship by accusing him wrongly of being a mole in the department. On the other hand, I m damn glad I didn t tell Renault what I was doing and where I would be, Noah said.

Yeah, I m doubly glad for that.

When there was no further action after two hours of surveillance, they finally went home.

Hey, don t worry about your buddy. We ll figure out what s going on.

Ethan was really concerned about Noah and how he felt about his friend.

He didn t want him worrying about it until they could investigate the matter further and learn the truth.

Thanks. Noah sounded appreciative that Ethan genuinely cared how he felt. In the morning, we ll be camping near the great-aunt s house an hour before church, right?

Yeah, why don t you come by and eat breakfast with us in a couple of hours? And then you and I will head out.

Are you sure?

Yeah, just get some sleep for the next couple of hours and we ll do this.

All right. Thanks.

See you in a little bit. Ethan grabbed his thermos and backpack.

See you. Then Noah drove off and Ethan headed into the house.

He left his thermos in the kitchen, his backpack on the table, and headed for the bedroom, eager to rejoin Charlene. He put his gun in the bedside table drawer on his side of the bed, then slipped into bed with her, hoping he wouldn t wake her, but she quickly pulled him into her arms.

I treasure being with you. You make every moment special, he said, kissing her, not having wanted her to stay awake for him, but he would have done the same for her, had their roles been reversed.

I feel the same way about the time I ve spent with you. I ve never trusted or cared for anyone like I care about you. She caressed his face, her touch loving and gentle, welcome.

The feeling is mutual. I feel safe with you.

She chuckled and kissed him. When I m not biting you.

He smiled. You know I m falling in love with you.

Oh, yeah, you re definitely making me feel the same way about you.

He hugged her and nuzzled his face against hers. We re having breakfast with Noah in the morning before we go to the great-aunt s house to see if we can take Oakley down. We ll have breakfast at six.

Hmm, okay.

And that was the end of talking for the rest of the morning, knowing they needed to get some sleep so they could function for the next part of their mission. He would tell her about Renault when they woke.